The decade of the 1760s in archaeology involved some significant events.
Explorations 1764: First systematic mapping of the Antonine Wall by William Roy.
Excavations Formal excavations continue at Pompeii. 1757: Rev. Bryan Faussett begins excavations at Anglo-Saxon cemeteries in Kent, England.
Finds 1761-1767: Carsten Niebuhr transcribes the cuneiform inscriptions at Persepolis. 1765: Nathaniel Davison discovers a stress-relieving chamber (Davison's chamber) above the Kings chamber in the Great Pyramid of Giza.
Publications 1762: James "Athenian" Stuart and Nicholas Revett's Antiquities of Athens. 1764: Robert Adam's Ruins of the Palace of the Emperor Diocletian at Spalatro in Dalmatia. Johann Joachim Winckelmann's Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums ("History of Ancient Art").
Other events 1764: French scholar Jean-Jacques Barthélemy deciphers the Phoenician language using the inscriptions on the Cippi of Melqart from Malta.
Births 1760: January 6 - Richard Polwhele, Cornish antiquarian (d. 1838) June 8 - Karl Böttiger, German archaeologist (d. 1835) 1763: November 19 - Karl Ludwig Fernow, German art critic and archaeologist (d. 1808) Samuel Lysons, English antiquarian (d. 1819) 1766: March 16? - Jean-Frédéric Waldeck, French antiquarian, cartographer, artist and explorer (d. 1875) 1769: March 23 - William Smith, English geologist (d. 1839) August 23 - Georges Cuvier, French naturalist, zoologist and paleontologist (d. 1832) September 14 - Alexander von Humboldt, Prussian explorer and writer (d. 1859)
Deaths 1765: March 3 - William Stukeley, English antiquarian (b. 1689) September 5 - Anne Claude de Caylus, French archaeologist (d. 1765) 1767: June 17 - Jean-Baptiste Greppo, French canon and archaeologist (b. 1712) 1768: June 8 - Johann Joachim Winckelmann, German art critic and archaeologist (b. 1717)
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